A tribute to and catalogue of the works of Alexander "Hugin" Wieser, founder of ambient black metal band Uruk Hai and many other side-projects, including Hrossharsgrani, Hrefnesholt, Elisabetha, B-Machina, Ceremony of Innocence and more!
Here you will find my thoughts on his work and details on the releases as drawn from items in my personal collection, forming a fuller catalogue of his work than is currently available elsewhere online

Tuesday, 11 July 2017

BEYOND UNIVERSE

Bands:URUK HAI and EISMONDTitle: Beyond Universe: A Journey Through Atmospheric Dark ArtsFormat: Promotional sampler with a silver CD on the Kristallblut label (Germany) released in 2016. Comes in a DVD size case with a wrap around cover, no other inserts.Edition:unknown

Life's a funny thing. There I was, preparing an entirely different post on a super-secret previously unreviewed release featuring both Eismond and Uruk Hai, when along came this compilation featuring, errr.... Eismond and Uruk Hai. Weird. Much like a London bus, you don't see any for aeons and then two come along at the same time...

This effort is a sampler released on the Kristallblut label, hence featuring acts signed to that particular label. Many of these will be pleasingly familiar to regular readers, either through having had split releases with Hugin's projects in the past (Sieghetnar, Funeral Fornication) or though association with other projects covered in passing in this blog: The Earth King, for example, being an off-shoot of Dead Mans Hill (who release the split "Dead:Meat" with Hrossharsgrani).

Of interest to us in this compilation are two tracks in particular: an edited version (thankfully, as the full length version would have filled the available recording space!) of Uruk Hai's 'Cirith Ungol', but - excitingly - a previously unreleased Eismond track, 'Moonsick'.

The former is a very truncated version of what was an extraordinary release (or more accurately, set of releases) from around 2010, when the myriad of versions of this song ran from a mere 57 minutes in standard format to a whopping 78 minutes in a 'special extended version' that seemingly never ended! Here, at a paltry few minutes, you'll get a taste of what's on offer but nothing more than that. But that's rather the point of a label sampler release, of course.

The Eismond track is a highly contagious affair, and is credited as previously unreleased. This is because, Nazgul can reveal, that it is from the upcoming Album "Moonchild", release date unknown but highly anticipated! This song was finished in November 2015, suggesting that the "Moonchild" album tracks were likely to have been completed in 2016 and awaiting unveiling ever since.

It's a relatively cheap buy, for once: this sampler is currently floating around Discogs and other similar sites for only a few Pounds, and is well worth picking up on that basis. Nazgul's copy has a large crease through the cover as it was originally sent out by the label in that manner (silly sods) so at some point I might have to pick up a cleaner copy for the library collection.

Something different - but reassuringly familiar - for you in the next post, the like of which we've not seen for around 10 months or so on Honour and Darkness: stay tuned!